South Australian House of Assembly

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House of Assembly

Type
Type	Lower house of the Parliament of South Australia
History
Founded	1857
Leadership
Speaker	Michael Atkinson, Labor Since 5 February 2013
Deputy Speaker	Michael Wright, Labor Since 5 February 2013
Structure
Seats	47
Political groups	Government Labor (26) Opposition Liberal (18) Crossbench Independent (3)
Meeting place

House of Assembly Chamber, Parliament House, Adelaide, South Australia, Australia
Website
SA House of Assembly

House of Assembly chamber circa 1928. Click here for a 360 degree view. Internet Explorer recommended.

Speakers' chair in 1889

The House of Assembly, or lower house, is one of the two chambers of the Parliament of South Australia. The other is the Legislative Council. It sits in Parliament House in the state capital, Adelaide.

As of the 2010 election, the lower house consists of 26 Labor, 18 Liberal and 3 independent.

Overview

The House of Assembly was created in 1857, when South Australia attained self-government. The development of an elected legislature — although only men could vote — marked a significant change from the prior system, where legislative power was in the hands of the Governor and the Legislative Council, which was appointed by the Governor.

In 1894, the House of Assembly granted women the right to vote — the second place in the world to do so after New Zealand in 1893- and the first to allow women to stand for election.

The House of Assembly has had 47 members since 1970, each coming from a single-member constituency. These are commonly known as seats, and are intended to represent approximately the same population in each electorate. Voting is by preferential voting with complete preference allocation, as with the equivalent federal chamber, the Australian House of Representatives. All members face re-election approximately every four years. The most recent election was held on 20 March 2010.

Most legislation is initiated in the House of Assembly. The party or coalition with the most seats in the lower house is invited by the Governor to form government. The leader of that party becomes Premier of South Australia, and their senior colleagues become ministers responsible for various portfolios. As Australian major party MPs almost always vote along party lines, almost all legislation introduced by the governing party will pass through the House of Assembly.

As with the federal parliament and Australian other states and territories, voting in the Assembly is compulsory for all those over the age of 18. Voting in the House of Assembly had originally been voluntary, but this was changed in 1942.

Election result summaries

Main article: List of elections in South Australia

	1857	1860	1862	1865	1868	1870	1871	1875	1878	1881	1884	1887	1890
Parliament	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13
Districts	17	17	18	18	18	18	18	22	22	22	26	26	27
Members	36	36	36	36	36	36	36	46	46	46	52	52	54

	1893	1896	1899	1902	1905	1906		1910	1912	1915	1918		1921	1924	1927
Parliament	14	15	16	17	18	19		20	21	22	23		24	25	26
Districts	27	27	27	13	13	13		13	12	19	19		19	19	19
Members	54	54	54	42	42	42		42	40	46	46		46	46	46
Cons.	21	21	28	19			ALP	22	16	26	17	ALP	16	27	16
Lib.	23	15	14	12			LDU	20	24	20	28	LU	25	17	28
ULP	10	12	11	5	15		FSP				1	FSP	4
Other		6	1	6	27								1	2	2

	1930	1933	1938	1941	1944	1947	1950	1953	1956	1959	1962	1965	1968
Parliament	27	28	29	30	31	32	33	34	35	36	37	38	39
Districts	19	19	39	39	39	39	39	39	39	39	39	39	39
Members	46	46	39	39	39	39	39	39	39	39	39	39	39
ALP	30	6	9	11	16	13	12	15	15	17	19	21	19
LCL	13	29	15	20	20	23	23	20	21	20	18	17	19
Other	3	11	15	8	3	3	4	4	3	2	2	1	1

	1970	1973	1975	1977	1979		1982	1985	1989	1993	1997	2002	2006
Parliament	40	41	42	43	44		45	46	47	48	49	50	51
Members	47	47	47	47	47		47	47	47	47	47	47	47
ALP	27	26	23	27	19		24	27	22	10	21	23	28
LPA	20	20	20	17	25		21	16	22	37	23	20	15
LM/AD			2	1	1	Nat	1	1	1		1	1	1
Other		1	2	2	2		1	3	2		2	3	3

	2010	2014	2018		2022	2026		2030	2034	2038		2042	2046		2050	2054	2058
Parliament	52
Members	47
ALP	26
LPA	18
Other	3

Current distribution of seats

For current members, see Members of the South Australian House of Assembly, 2010–2014.

Party	Seats held
Party	2010	2010–current
Australian Labor Party	26
Liberal Party of Australia	18
Independents	3

Previous distributions of seats

2006–2010

For current members, see Members of the South Australian House of Assembly, 2006–2010.

Party	Seats held
Party	2006	2009	2009–2010
Australian Labor Party	27	28
Liberal Party of Australia	15	14
National Party of Australia	1	1
Independents	4	4

The Liberals were reduced from 15 to 14 seats when independent Geoff Brock was elected at the 2009 Frome by-election.

2002–2006

For current members, see Members of the South Australian House of Assembly, 2002–2006.

Party	Seats held
Party	2002	2003	2006	2006
Australian Labor Party	23	22	22
Liberal Party of Australia	20	20	20
National Party of Australia	1	1	1
Greens		1
Independents	3	3	4

Kris Hanna was elected as a Labor member in 2002, but defected first to the Greens and later became an independent.

1997–2002

For current members, see Members of the South Australian House of Assembly, 1997–2002.

Party	Seats held
Party	1997	1997–1999	1999	2000	2001	2001–2002
Liberal Party of Australia	24		25	23	23
Australian Labor Party	21		21	21	19
National Party of Australia	1		1	1	1
Independents	1		0	2	4

Mitch Williams was elected as an Independent Liberal member in 1997, but rejoined the Liberal Party in on 6 December 1999.
Peter Lewis was expelled from the Liberal Party on 6 July 2000. He continued to sit in the Assembly as an independent.
Bob Such resigned from the Liberal Party on 12 October 2000. He continued to sit in the Assembly as an independent.
Murray De Laine resigned from the Labor Party on 15 August 2001. He continued to sit in the Assembly as an independent.
Ralph Clarke, resigned from the Labor Party on 27 November 2001. He continued to sit in the Assembly as an independent.

1993–1997

For current members, see Members of the South Australian House of Assembly, 1993–1997.

Party	Seats held
Party	1993	1994	1994–1997
Liberal Party of Australia	37	36
Australian Labor Party	10	11

Labor were increased from 10 to 11 seats when Robyn Geraghty was elected at the 1994 Torrens by-election.

References

External links

v t e Elections and referendums in South Australia

General elections	1857 1860 1862 1865 1868 1870 1871 1875 1878 1881 1884 1887 1890 1893 1896 1899 1902 1905 1906 1910 1912 1915 1918 1921 1924 1927 1930 1933 1938 1941 1944 1947 1950 1953 1956 1959 1962 1965 1968 1970 1973 1975 1977 1979 1982 1985 1989 1993 1997 2002 2006 2010 2014 by-elections

Referendums	1896 1898 1899 1911 1915 1965 1970 1982 1991

v t e Government of South Australia

Executive	Monarchy Governor Premier Deputy Premier Police

Legislative	Parliament Legislative Council House of Assembly President of the Legislative Council Speaker of the House of Assembly MLCs MHAs Electoral districts Opposition Leader

Judicial	Supreme Court District Court Industrial Relations Court Magistrates' Court Coroner's Court Other courts and tribunals

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